The aunt was "dancing with joy" and suffered from a strange disease, but the culprit was diabetes?

The prevalence of diabetes in my country has remained high. In 2021, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) released a report on the number of diabetes patients in various countries, among which the number of diabetes patients aged 20 to 79 in my country reached 140.9 million.

Moreover, the biggest threat to patients' health caused by diabetes is not the disease itself, but the series of complications it brings, some of which even manifest unexpectedly...

Dancing is also a complication of diabetes

Recently, a piece of news from Xi'an became a hot topic on Weibo. The story goes like this: 63-year-old Aunt Wang was chatting with her daughter at home when her body suddenly twisted uncontrollably, especially her left arm and left leg, which looked like she was "dancing".

What happened to Aunt Wang? After analysis and discussion by experts, it was finally diagnosed that Aunt Wang had non-ketotic hyperglycemic hemichorea caused by diabetes.

Image source: Weibo "Shaanxi News"

If it weren’t for this news, most people might not know that there is such a rare complication of diabetes as “hand dancing”.

In addition to this, what other complications of diabetes are worth paying attention to?

To understand the complications of diabetes, we must first understand what complications are. Some terms that are often confused with complications include "sequelae" and "side effects".

Among them, side effects refer to drugs. The pharmacological effects of drugs are often multiple. They can not only treat the target disease, but also inevitably produce other effects on the body that are not related to treatment. These are "side effects."

Sequelae refer to the defects or functional disorders remaining in the patient's tissues and organs after the patient's condition has basically improved.

What are the complications of diabetes?

Existing clinical data show that 30% to 40% of diabetic patients will develop at least one complication after suffering from the disease for more than 10 years, and severe cases may even be life-threatening.

Image source: hippopx

Since the main threat to health from diabetes lies in complications, it is crucial to understand and prevent complications in a targeted manner. So, what are the complications of diabetes?

Common diabetes complications can be divided into acute complications and chronic complications according to the severity of their onset.

If the blood sugar level of a diabetic patient suddenly rises or falls, it will quickly lead to endocrine and metabolic disorders and acute complications.

Common ones include: ketoacidosis and hyperosmolar coma related to insufficient insulin secretion; lactic acidosis caused by liver and kidney dysfunction and oral administration of large doses of hypoglycemic drugs; and hypoglycemic coma that is prone to occur in diabetic patients during treatment.

Acute complications can usually be effectively improved with timely treatment. In contrast, chronic complications are often the difficulty in the daily treatment of diabetes.

Chronic complications are generally caused by long-term high blood sugar. Although the onset is slow, they can have a significant impact on the patient's daily life and may even directly endanger their lives.

For example, diabetic patients have a higher incidence of kidney disease. Long-term high blood sugar levels will significantly increase the kidney's sugar metabolism load, leading to various diabetic nephropathy, decreased kidney function, and even kidney failure in the late stages.

Long-term high blood sugar can also damage the endothelium of retinal blood vessels, triggering a series of diabetic retinopathy, such as microaneurysms, decreased vision, and even retinal detachment.

Excessively high blood sugar levels will continue to affect the patient's cardiovascular health, and can easily lead to a series of cardiovascular diseases such as lower limb artery occlusion, coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetic cardiovascular disease.

Due to long-term metabolic disorders, the function of the vascular system is affected, causing nervous system lesions. Diabetic patients are also prone to diabetic neuropathy such as numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, and orthostatic hypotension.

In contrast, the non-ketotic hyperglycemic hemichorea we mentioned at the beginning is a relatively rare complication.

Currently, only about 100 cases have been reported worldwide. The disease is more common in middle-aged and elderly patients with a history of diabetes for many years, and is more common in women. Clinically, it manifests as rhythmic, slow dance movements that gradually spread from one side of the limbs to the whole body.

In addition, diabetic muscle infarction is also a rare complication. Although its pathogenesis is still unclear, it is currently believed that this complication is secondary to microvascular lesions, including muscle inflammation, ischemia, and infarction of the affected muscles. The typical clinical manifestation is sudden pain and swelling of the affected muscles.

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) can detect subclinical myocardial infarction months before clinical symptoms appear.

After learning about these complications of diabetes, everyone must take precautions in life, control diet, use medication properly, insist on exercise, and have regular check-ups to keep complications out!

END

Audit experts:

Wu Xi, associate chief physician of the Department of Endocrinology, Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, doctor of medicine.

Tadpole Musical Notation original article, please indicate the source when reprinting

Editor/Xiao Xitushuo